


Enough

by OfficialStarsandGutters



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-03
Updated: 2013-11-03
Packaged: 2017-12-31 07:45:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1029094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OfficialStarsandGutters/pseuds/OfficialStarsandGutters
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A small glimpse into Earl and Kevin's relationship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Enough

 

“You're so cute,” Kevin whispers against Earl's ear, fingers carding softly through his hair. Earl turns his head, catches Kevin's lips that were aiming for his throat and lets the kiss linger. Sweet, easy affection. Kevin smiles, curls an arm around Earl's waist and pulls him back against his body.

“So cute,” he repeats, and Earl giggles.

It hadn't always been easy. It hadn't always been as natural and as comfortable as it is now. At the beginning Earl could not see Kevin, could not see beyond the mirror image of Cecil. The eyes and the smile were off, but he was close enough that Earl was immediately smitten. Close enough that it made Earl's chest ache.

Then Kevin had spoke, the illusion had shattered like broken glass, and the cracked pieces of disappointment had wedged themselves in Earl's heart.

Over time Kevin had picked them out with careful fingers and even more careful words. He had found Earl cracked and broken and had stitched him back together, taped over the cracks. It wasn't like he could judge. It wasn't like Kevin wasn't broken in his own way.

Some nights he still wakes up screaming.

Some days his eyes still turn that empty black and his speech returns to that hollow, cheerful tone.

But Earl is there to hold him when he cries and to ground him when he loses himself in the labyrinth Strex warped his mind into, and Kevin repays him with unreserved love and affection. He is not what Earl thought he wanted, but he is, Earl has come to realise, what he has always really wanted.

And they fit. They fit in ways Earl and Cecil never could, if he's honest with himself, if he really thinks about it. Kevin is sensitive to him in ways Cecil could never manage, knows how to read and react to him with practised instinct. He does not mind that Earl is clumsy and shy, that he trips over his words as well as his feet. He does not care that Earl is a terrible cook and devotes too much time to his scouts group. Kevin cleans him up when he stumbles home, battered and bruised from an animal attack, from one of the children turning on him, from that one trek he nearly didn't make it back from him.

Kevin is patient and sweet and constantly struggling to stay in control. At times he is jittery and scared, flinches away from Earl's touch. At other times physical contact is the only thing that calms him down. He is damaged. He is so damaged and he is far from perfect, and yet, Earl looks at him and sees all he will ever need.

Things are easier. Things are natural and comfortable. They've learned each other over time, become familiar with the way the other works, but it's not always simple. They're both troubled in their own way, but then again, isn't everyone? Sometimes Earl comes home to find dead animals torn open across the living room. Sometimes he still thinks about how things could have turned out differently. For the most part, he thinks about how much happier he has been since Kevin stumbled into Night Vale and into his life.

“I love you,” Kevin says, and the words hold a certain reverence despite the amount of times they've been uttered.

Earl shifts in his arms, turns to face him and looks up into his face. He smiles and trails his fingers down along the curve of cheekbone, smiles wider when Kevin presses into the touch like a cat.

“And I love you.”

Yeah, they still struggle sometimes, but they struggle together, and that's enough.


End file.
